Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales says MPs should vote electronically

Category: Wikipedia

Im actually quite surprisingly a big sceptic of this. Electronic voting in elections give no paper trail, furthermore voting from home and not behind a curtain in a public place may mean that for certain kinds of people in society their votes may be coerced or bought.

Mr Wales was in conversation with John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, who was guest editing the show.

He said: I suppose the elephant in the room is the way in which we vote here in Parliament. Each division can take up to 15 minutes or thereabouts.

Its ancient, its ritualistic, its in some peoples minds quite fun, but there is no doubt that it takes longer than voting electronically.

The Wikipedia founder also said that although it seemed archaic that messages within Parliament were still delivered by hand by men in tights, the attendants dressed in traditional clothes, he did not want MPs to give up all their old customs.

We want the adversarial nature of Parliamentary debate [even though] it can be a bit embarrassingly robust when I watch it on television.

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Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales says MPs should vote electronically

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December 27th, 2014
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